This guide strives to aid researchers and students in finding images for coursework, creative work, teaching and/or publication.
It offers linked access to general resources that provide different types of images including: fine art, photographs, maps, 3D renderings and useful sound and video files which are available for Public Domain use, or under creative commons licensing. A glossary of related terms pertinent to aid understanding of open access sources is also provided. This guide utilizes a variety of university, gallery, museum and/or curated collections and governmental works.
Some sites are curated platforms formed from second party partnerships and usage permissions may vary. Remember to always check the site itself for attribution suggestions or copyright. Some of the sites here offer both complete open access sources and copyrighted images. Others allow users to download materials, for personal, non-commercial, educational, and research purposes only. It is the responsibility of the user to comply with copyright requirements.
Please be aware that you must follow the copyright laws of Canada, even if the image host is in another country. If you sign in to an account or establish an account, then the user rights outlined by the site must also be followed.
It is always good practice to make sure that the image is not protected by copyright. Most content on the web is copyrighted. If you wish to use a copyrighted image, you will need to seek permission from the copyright owner. Once you are ready to use an image, be sure to include image credit and source.
Fair Dealing refers to user rights and is part of the Copyright Act of Canada. It is an exception that allows for research, private, education, parody, satire, criticism, review and news reporting.
For explanations on properly citing online sources visit the Writing Centre website.
For more information on copyright and images, visit the Copyright Office website.
What is the difference between public domain and open license?
Both public domain and open licenses grant free access to the materials, but an open license recognizes a clear ownership of intellectual property. Public domain images are works in which the copyright has expired, or in which the creator has dedicated the work to the public domain and the copyright holder has waived copyright ownership in the work. Users are required to attribute works to the original authors when using openly licensed materials.
Public Domain: Copyright ownership is waived and the author gives away rights to the public to reproduce and distribute creative work. Giving attribution, when known, is still strongly encouraged within the expectations of academic integrity.
Open License: (Creative Commons) Copyright ownership retained. The author grants broad rights to the public to reproduce and distribute creative work.
Glossary
Glossary of Terms
Adapt: User is free to remix, transform, and build upon the material as long as the user follows the licensor's terms.
Bitmap Images: These are also known as Raster Graphics. With bitmap images, information consists of a grid of pixels and the colour value of each pixel. If you blow up a raster graphic, it will look block-like, or "pixelated." The larger the image, the more disk space the image will take up. File extensions: .BMP, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG
Clip Art: Clip art is a collection of pictures or images that can be imported into a document, creative project or another program. The image may be in either raster graphics or vector graphics. Clip art is typically organized into categories, such as people, objects, and nature, or themes such as winter, music, rock carvings.
Copyright: The legal term used to declare and prove who owns a piece of intellectual property. It is a Right that grants the creator or owner of that work the exclusive right to decide the conditions under which the work may be used by others. To find out more about copyright policy consult the UNB Copyright pages here: https://www.lib.unb.ca/copyright/
Creative Commons: The Creative Commons (CC) is an American non- profit organization with a globally affiliated network which has created publicly accessible copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of knowledge and creative works. A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that they have created.
Creative Commons License: There are six different CC licenses. Always respect attribution requests. This is good scholarship practice.
Attribution- Only Attribution: All CC licenses require appropriate credit be given to the licensor, as requested in the terms and conditions of use. It is best practice to provide link to the license, and indicate if changes were made to the original work.
Attribution-Share- Alike: This license allows the user to remix, transform, or build upon the material, however the user must distribute the modified work under the same license as the original. Attribution is expected.
Attribution No- Derivatives: Permission is granted to copy, distribute, display and perform only original copies of a work, as long as it is passed along unchanged and attributed.
Attribution Non- Commercial: User can copy, distribute, display, perform, and (unless No- Derivatives is also part of the license) modify and use the work for any non- commercial purpose. You must attribute the work and may not use the material for commercial purposes (commercial advantage or monetary compensation).
Attribution-Non Commercial- No Derivatives: The user only has permission to download the work and share it if the licensor is credited. The user cannot change, or alter the work in any way or use it commercially.
Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike: This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work for non-commercial purposes. Credit should be given and the new creation should be licensed under identical terms. To share and adapt.
Creative Commons Zero (CC0): This is a type of license in which the creator or a subsequent owner of a work applies the CC0 license to a work. The work is not restricted under copyright law and is instead considered to be in the public domain. Anyone can use the work in any way and for any purpose, including commercial purposes. Consult Creative Commons Zero (CC0) for additional information on copyright and public-domain terms and definitions. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Curate: A subject expert (curator) finds, selects, organizes and presents a collection to highlight relevant content. This can be organized by art movement, time period, subject, idea and/ or thematic to name a few select categories.
Derivative: Something that is based on another source, or has its roots in another work.
Fair Dealing: This is a user- focused provision of the Canadian Copyright Act that tries to balance the rights of creators of protected copyrighted works, with those who want to share the work for the purpose of research, private study, education, parody or satire, criticism or review, and news reporting. Please see UNB Copyright’s Fair Dealing page for more information.
Intellectual Property: Intellectual property is any creation of the mind, what is known as an “intangible asset.” IP includes inventions, literary and artistic works, designs and symbols, and names and images used in business.
Licence: Licensing is the legal term used to describe the conditions under which people are allowed to use copyrighted material. It is possible to license the material in different ways, to different people. Only the copyright owner (or their agent) can enter in to a licence agreement.
Moral Rights: This generally refers to a creator's right to attribution, integrity and association of a creative work to the original maker. These Rights are protected under the Copyright Act of Canada. Moral Rights for artists include:
The right to protect your artwork against distortion, alteration or mutilation in a way which prejudices your reputation (right of integrity);
A maker has the right to be recognized, or named, as the creator of a work (attribution)
The right to associate your name as the author of your work even if you choose to remain anonymous (association)
The right to protect your visual image from association with a cause, a product, service, or institution to which you are personally opposed.
The creator of a work retains moral rights for the length of the copyright, even if copyright is held by another party.
No Additional Restrictions: You may not apply legal terms, or conditions or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the original license permits.
No Copyright: A work has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related rights. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
No Known Copyright Restrictions: This implies the copyright is in the public domain because it has expired, and/or; the copyright was injected into the public domain for other reasons, such as failure to adhere to required formalities or conditions and /or; the institution owns the copyright but is not interested in exercising control and/or; the institution has legal rights sufficient to authorize others to use the work without restrictions.
Non Commercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes. Carefully read the license to see if any other kind of use is allowed.
Open Access: An international academic movement that attempts to encourage free and open online access to material, information and data. With open access materials, anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for and search within for information, or use it in educational purposes. There are no financial, legal or technical barriers. Any images identified as Open Access can be used for any purpose, including educational, commercial and non- commercial use. It is recommended the source is giving credit, as this is good scholarly practice. Find out more here:
Public Domain Images:Public domain images are free to use and reuse because they are not protected by intellectual property laws. In many cases, they are older works with expired copyright. In some cases, creators have actively released their works into the public domain, making them openly available for use.
Public Domain Images, Canada: In Canada, most works pass into the public domain 50 years following the end of the calendar year in which the author died. While a work may be in the Public Domain, a specific edition or image of the work may still be under copyright. Some depositories request a simple attribution statement.
Royalty Free: This refers to a copyright license where the user has the right to use the picture based on one-time payment to the licensor, without having to pay each time the image is used. For instance, many stock agencies charge a fee for royalty free images.
Share: Free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Vector Graphics: Vector images consist of shapes, like circles, squares, lines and curves. These shapes are then drawn in outline and / or filled in to create the artwork. . They are a representation of both a quantity and a direction at the same time. Having the image information recorded in the form of shapes allows you to scale the image however you like without losing the quality. When you blow up a vector graphic, the edges of each object within the graphic stay smooth and clean. File extensions: .AI, .EPS, .SVG, .DRW
ARTstor: 1 million freely accessible images, videos, documents, and audio files from library special collections, faculty research, and institutional history materials, as well as hundreds of thousands of open access images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.artstor.org/public-collections
Flickr- The Commons: This free image hosting site works as an image archive, sharing imagery under a variety of licenses, some free and some for purchase. Under "The Commons," participating cultural institutions have reasonably concluded that a photograph is free of copyright restrictions are invited to share such photograph under their new usage guideline called "no known copyright restrictions." A photo sharing site on Flickr where institutes such as The Library of Congress, Powerhouse Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, and various users can post and share images that have no known copyright restrictions. https://www.flickr.com/commons
Google Arts and Culture: This enormous virtual museum offers public access to high resolution images of artworks. Search by artists, themes and collections. Offers interactive options such as 360 degree views, real time projections of artworks, and street views. Google states that the Cultural Institute platform only accepts copyright-free or copyright-cleared images from partners, but it is wise to check each individual image before use. Downloading certain images is unavailable, but you can share the images on a variety of platforms. https://artsandculture.google.com/
Library of Congress: Access the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog which contains catalog records and digital images of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and other units of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress offers broad public access to these materials as a contribution to education and scholarship. However, rights assessment is your responsibility. For more information and to access the catalogue click here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
Internet Archive: This non-profit organization was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. A robust collection. https://archive.org/index.php
Open Culture: A cornucopia of high quality cultural and educational media. This site centralizes, and curates these free sources. It includes 1150 free movies (film noir, silent, animations among many others), eBooks, lectures, language courses and images. 1.8 million free works of art gleaned and organized by subject and theme from museums and libraries such as the British Museum, the Tate, Google Art Project, the Met and the Smithsonian. http://www.openculture.com/
General
Creative Commons Search: A single interface allows a search across multiple platforms and resources. Not all results returned are licensed under Creative Commons licenses though. See individual results for more detail. https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/
Corbis Images: Royalty Free and Unlimited Use limiters available. You can search through thousands of royalty free images, no fees and can be used for non-commercial and commercial purposes. https://www.gettyimages.ca/
Google Image: Searching Google Images is a great way to find interesting pictures. Google has an option to search images by usage rights. Under the Search Tools, select “Usage Rights.” There are options to filter your picture search based on how they are going to be used. https://images.google.com/
Google Reverse Image Search: If you have an image in your collection and with to find out information about the image (its usage status and collection location for instance) you can conduct an image search for a specific work. Go to Google Images, select the camera icon, upload image or paste the image URL: https://images.google.com/
Image After: Image After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture for either personal or commercial purposes. http://www.imageafter.com/index.php
MorgueFile: High resolution digital stock photography. The site offers thousands of free images almost all that have no restrictions or agreements attached. In addition the site requires no login to download the high quality files. https://morguefile.com/
PDpics: A repository of thousands of free public domain pictures organized by image categories such as “money,” “education,” “jewelry” and “vehicles”. http://pdpics.com/
Photo Graphic Libraries: Image hosting site that offers secure cloud storage for photographers, public domain images and a robust historic image collection. Diverse collection of links to photo collections, film & video available for use in the public domain. http://www.photographiclibraries.com/?c=10
Picdrome: A digital photography collection organized by categories such as “industry and machinery,” “food and drink,” and “nature.” http://www.picdrome.com/
Pixabay- Public Domain: You need to set up an account, no cost. Then you can download high- resolution images, illustrations, vector graphics and videos. https://pixabay.com/
Public Domain Images- Free Photo collections: Diverse collection of links to photo collections, film & video available for use in the public domain. http://www.photographiclibraries.com/?c=10
Shutterography: Includes categories such as “artistic”, “vintage” and a general category search of images related to technology, industry and business. https://www.shutterography.com/
Unsplash: Licensed under Creative Commons Zero open to copy, modify, distribute and use for free. Organized by category with a useful general search option. Includes photographs of textures and patterns. https://unsplash.com/
Wikimedia Commons: A media repository that is part of the Wikipedia project, where users are free to use any of the site's photos, audio, videos, and other media freely. Search for photos under Creative Commons licenses, GFDL, and public domain images, and you may specifically search for each of these types of licenses. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Galleries and Museums
Barnes Foundation: The public can download high-resolution images of over 1,400 works that are in the public domain. The “Public Domain” categorization is used when the Barnes believes a work to be free of known restrictions under copyright law. The Barnes makes the images available for high-resolution download without charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial. https://www.barnesfoundation.org/collection/open-access-and-copyright
Chicago Art Institute: The Art Institute of Chicago has a searchable database of high-resolution photographs of works in the collection. Many of these images are identified as "public domain" allowing them to be used freely, even for commercial purposes. Select "Public Domain". Check the copyright notice for each work. https://www.artic.edu/collection
The Getty-Open Content Program: The Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required. http://www.getty.edu/about/whatwedo/opencontent.html
LACMA online collection: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art offers nearly 20,000 high- quality images of public domain artworks from their permanent collection without restriction on use. Terms of use.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Image and Data Resources: Approximately 400,000 images of artworks in The Met’s collection that the Museum believes to be in the public domain, or those to which the Museum waives any copyright it might have, including commercial and noncommercial use, free of charge and without requiring permission from the Museum. Go to the The Met Collection and select "Pubic Domain Artworks."
National Gallery of Art: The National Gallery of Art (Washington) implements an open access policy for digital images of works of art that the Gallery believes to be in the public domain. Images of these works are now available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial. https://images.nga.gov/en/page/show_home_page.html
Smithsonian Institution- Open F|S: A project to digitize all the collections of the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the Freer Study Collection, with more than 40,000 works made available for high-resolution download. Images can be used for all non-commercial purposes. https://www.freersackler.si.edu/collections/
Wellcome Images: Includes high resolution images drawn from the historical holdings of the Wellcome Library, released under a Creative Commons license. https://wellcomecollection.org/works
Clip Art and Vector Images
Classroom Clipart: Free clip art, illustrations and pictures organized by categories such as “Anatomy” Animal”, Computers, maps, and “world flags”. Option to edit the image, download and save as a png, gif or jpg. https://classroomclipart.com/
Freepik: A great resource for photos that are attribution but come in a variety of file formats. https://www.freepik.com/
Public Domain Clip Art: These are images collected from sources which either place their images in the public domain, abandon their copyright, or have expired copyright. Public Domain images are considered to be freely available for any use by the public. https://www.pdclipart.org/
Vector Stock: Royalty free vector images, vector art, graphics, clipart, illustrations and high resolution stock images. Sign in required. Terms state that, with "free downloads" the relevant artist grants a non-transferable, non-exclusive license for personal use only. https://www.vectorstock.com/
ARTSTOR: 1 million freely accessible images, videos, documents, and audio files from library special collections, faculty research, and institutional history materials, as well as hundreds of thousands of open access images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.artstor.org/public-collections
Free Sound: This is a collaborative database of creative-commons licensed sound, allows reuse for non-commercial projects. A project of the Music Technology Group at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. https://freesound.org/
MUSOPEN: Royalty free sheet music, recordings and textbooks. https://musopen.org/
Photo Graphic Libraries: Image hosting site that offers secure cloud storage for photographers, public domain images and a robust historic image collection. Diverse collection of links to photo collections, film & video available for use in the public domain. http://www.photographiclibraries.com/?c=10
Sound Bible: Royalty free sounds, includes Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 put simply means you can use this audio but you must attribute your work to this person. It includes public domain sounds which are free to use. License type is listed beside sound clip. http://soundbible.com/royalty-free-sounds-1.html
Sound Jay: Sounds on this host site are free to use for creative projects. Includes categories such as “background sounds”, “machines”, “house and domestic” and “human sound effects.” https://www.soundjay.com/
Open Culture Film: 1,150 movies free online. Includes classics, indie, film noir, documentaries and other films, created by some of our greatest actors, actresses and directors. The collection is divided into the following categories: Comedy & Drama; Film Noir, Horror & Hitchcock; Westerns; Martial Arts Movies; Silent Films; Documentaries, and Animation. http://www.openculture.com/freemoviesonline
Maps and Geospatial Mapping
Maps and Geospatial Mapping
Age of Exploration: Age of Exploration features rare manuscript and early printed material, highly illustrated maps and documents, diaries and ships’ logs covering key events in the history of European Maritime exploration from 1420-1920. Images from this collection may be downloaded, printed and photocopied for educational purposes including coursepacks. Terms: http://www.exploration.amdigital.co.uk/Help/FAQ
ARCHNET: Based at MIT, this open access library has a special focus on the Islamic world. The databank includes images, videos, site maps and floor plans, as well as thousands of images of architecture and Islamic monuments. Users can search various collections as well as interact with a very useful timeline search option. Also includes a Print Image/ Map option. May download materials, for personal, non-commercial, educational, and research purposes only. Terms: https://archnet.org/pages/terms
David Rumsey Map Collection: The David Rumsey Map Collection digitized and stored at Stanford, contains more than 150,000 maps. The collection focuses on rare 16th through 21st century maps of North and South America, as well as maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, wall maps, globes, school geographies, pocket maps, books of exploration, maritime charts, and a variety of cartographic materials including pocket, wall, children's, and manuscript maps. Items range in date from about 1550 to the present. Images may be reproduced or transmitted, but not for commercial use. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. ttps://www.davidrumsey.com/
GeoNB: Provides free maps, geographic datasets and useful applications such as coastal erosion data application, flood risk zones and municipal election viewers to name a few. Provided through Service New Brunswick - Service Nouveau- Brunswick. http://www.snb.ca/geonb1/
Google Maps: Google has many features to help locate specific sites around the globe, such as satellite imagery, terrain topography and interiors of mapped landmarks. You can create your own custom map on desktop (also available as an app). Open the menu and click Your Places- Maps and then Create Map. Give your map a name and a description, and mark relevant places. You can also collaborate on a map with other people. To create an interactive embedded map, go to: https://www.google.com/maps/d/home
You can create a multiple stop map as well. Click on “Create a New Map.” Search for your first address or landmarks. Click on “Add to Map”. Continue to search and add. Go to each location and change the colour of the pin (paint bucket). Title map, add notes. Click on “Share”- “public on the web”. Expand the 3 dotes and select “embed on my site.” Copy code and add to you site. To create a printable map by expanding the same 3 dots and select “Print Map”.
Library of Congress Maps Collection: Includes map collections such as mapping the National Parks, Railroad maps, civil war maps, military situation maps, exploration, and illustrated maps of cities and towns among others. The maps in in the map collection are published prior to 1922 or part or produced by US government. For educational and research purposes. Check the “Rights Advisory” section of the catalogue entry for each individual collection. https://www.loc.gov/maps/collections/
New York City Space/ Time Directory: The New York Public Library digitized maps of NY made by fire insurance companies. This is a freely accessible digital “time-travel” service, with historical maps, layered and interactive geospatial data and images. Resources include: a searchable atlas of New York past, an historical location directory and geocoder, a set of APIs and data sets, and a discovery tool linking NYPL collections together in an historical and geographic context. http://spacetime.nypl.org/
Open Maps: Provides access to the Government of Canada’s geospatial information. Ability to combine, visual, and analyze geospatial data and collaborate with other Canadians. Maps of major resources, marine protected areas, energy infrastructures, and indigenous communities and Tribal Council maps among others. https://open.canada.ca/en/open-maps
Solar System Scope: Free online virtual model of the solar system, a spacepedia and downloadable high resolution planet surface textures. Can go back and forward in time and view changes to planetary systems. Explore each planet in our solar system, its structure, and atmosphere. The site also has a geolocation feature. https://www.solarsystemscope.com/
Historical Images
Historical
Artifacts Canada: This site hosted by Culture, History and Sport Canada contains 5 million object records and 1 million images from Canadian Museums. Art objects, ethnological and historical artifacts, and much more. For non- commercial use. Check usage rights and copyright information included with each image. https://app.pch.gc.ca/application/artefacts_hum/indice_index.app?lang=en
Biblioteca Digital Hispanica: Includes sound playlists, advertising posters, architectural drawings, books of hours, engravings and general works of art. Unless specified otherwise, the images are in the public domain under a Creative Commons Attribution- non commercial- share alike 4.0 international license. Check the image before usage. http://www.bne.es/en/Catalogos/BibliotecaDigitalHispanica/Colecciones/
British Library Digitized Manuscripts: Includes beautifully scanned manuscripts from the BL collection including Botany in British India, Greek manuscripts, the Harley Scientific Manuscripts, Hebrew manuscripts, music manuscripts, Persian manuscripts and civil war manuscripts among others. The content on this site combines third party copyright, public domain content and creative commons content. Check the usage terms under “ownership.” https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/
British Library- Flickr: The Digital Research Team at the British Library has curated more than one million public domain images from within their digitized collection of over 65,000 books from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. All images on their Flickr Commons account are free to use and remix. https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary
Chinese Canadian Artifacts: This is an open-source archival repository ATOM (Access to Memory) Project to commemorate the historical contributions of Chinese Canadians. Photographs, fonds and artifacts are some of the items found on this site. Creative Commons Share-alike license. https://ccap.uvic.ca/
Gallica BnF- National Library of France: The contents available on the Gallica website are for the most part digital reproductions of images that have fallen into the public domain from the collections of the BnF. For non- commercial use. https://gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/manuscrits/manuscrits
The Memory Project: Over 10 thousand images related to Canadian War veterans. Its image gallery is conceptualized by categories such as Entertainment and Leave, Armored Vehicles, Prisoners of War, Science and Technology and Trench Warfare. The collection also contains thematically curated resources such as Black Canadian Veterans, Women in WWII, and HMCS Sackville among others. For publication purposes, all content belongs to the Memory Project, they must be contacted for permissions. http://www.thememoryproject.com/image-gallery
New York Public Library, Archives and Manuscripts: Collections include sound recordings, videos, film, databases, and software. Use the filter “Show Only Public Domain.” http://archives.nypl.org/
Open Marginalis: This collection is an aggregation of open access digitized marginalia found in medieval manuscripts dating from the 5th to the 15th century. The platform highlights open access digital collections of libraries, archives, and special collections from major archival depositories. The name of the institution is hyperlinked to the source of digital object for attribution purposes. You can browse by institution, resources and illuminated manuscript categories such as Century, Style, Type and Place of Creation. http://openmarginalis.tumblr.com/resources
Yale’s Great Depression Photo Collection: 170,000 photographs documenting the Great Depression from an Americana perspective. Yale University has launched Photogrammar, a sophisticated web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing these 170,000 historic photographs. Photogrammer also includes an interactive map that lets you gather information about 90,000 photographs included in the collection. http://photogrammar.yale.edu/
Science and Health, Agriculture
Science and Health
Anatomy of the Brain: An educational site on neuroanatomy by Claudia Krebs- University of British Columbia. Includes an atlas of dissection images, MRI, 3D models videos, tutorials. User can create and download video in video clips. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Shareailke 4.0 International License. http://neuroanatomy.ca/
Bartleby- Gray’s Anatomy: The 1918 version of the renowned Henry Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body. https://www.bartleby.com/107/
BioDigital Human: A 3D platform created to aid the understanding of anatomy, disease and treatments. Interactive tools for exploring, dissecting, and sharing custom views, combined with detailed medical descriptions. The images on this site may be used royalty free for non- commercial, private educational use only. This includes presentations, lectures and patient education materials. Free app download. https://www.biodigital.com/
Cell Image Library: Collection of thousands of microscopic and electron microscopic images, videos and animations of cell components, cell types, organelles, cell processes of a variety of organisms, both normal and abnormal. Multiple Licenses, information given with each item. http://www.cellimagelibrary.org/home
Creative Commons-Category Search: Search the Creative Commons by categories such as Nature, Landscapes, Animals, Solar System, and Human Anatomy. A variety of CC licenses, disclosed with each image. https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/
HEAL: Health Education Assets Library (HEAL) is a collection of over 22,000 freely available digital materials for health sciences education. The collection is now housed at the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Digital Library. https://library.med.utah.edu/heal/
National Library of Medicine: Public Domain images from the NLM historical collections. Search hundreds of images of book illustrations, photographs, fine art, and ephemera. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlmhmd/
NCI Visuals Online: The US National Cancer Institute's provides a range of photographs and illustrations; everything from biomedical, and science, to patient-care related illustrations and images. Each image or illustration is labeled either "Public Domain" or "Copyright Protected." Most of the images available in this library are in the public domain and are not subject to copyright restrictions. Reproduced images should acknowledge NCI as the originator, the NCI Web site, www.cancer.gov, as the source and/or the image creator. The source can be cited as: The Web site of the National Cancer Institute (https://www.cancer.gov). Cannot search by reuse restrictions.
Public Health Image Library: The Public Health Image Library (PHIL) is a database of images from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, USA. The database includes photos, illustrations, and videos, many of which are available in high resolution. Images are often in the public domain and free to use, but it is requested that you credit the content provider. To begin your search, under “Advanced Search” select Public Domain and deselect copyright restriction and add your key terms. https://phil.cdc.gov/
Science Image: This science photo library of over 4000 free images from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia. Organized by categories such as soil science, water, renewables, food, and astronomy. The images are mostly photographs and micrographs which are free to download and use as long as you give the original author credit. https://www.scienceimage.csiro.au/
Servier Medical Art: This is an excellent resource for anatomy, biology, and medical illustrations. You can download specific items or entire sets of images. Everything is contained in PowerPoint presentations, so you can easily edit and combine your chosen elements. The material is covered by the Creative Commons 3.0 license, meaning you can share and edit the material as long as you give appropriate credit. https://smart.servier.com/
Forestry Images: This grant funded project offers a variety of creative commons licensed and public domain images related to invasive species and ecosystem health for use in educational applications. Images cover forwstry, agrucultre, pest nmanagement, plants, insects, fungi, wildlife, fire among other natural resource issues. https://www.forestryimages.org/index.cfm
US Department of Agriculture: Special collection of rare books, manuscripts, trade catalogues, photographs, and posters 1500- present. https://specialcollections.nal.usda.gov/